EMP Attack Could Wipe Out U.S.

The federal government is doing “nothing” to protect against an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack that could wipe out American civilization,
Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, a leading expert on the subject, tells Newsmax.

For only $200 million to $400 million, the government could protect a key element of the power grid to keep electrical power from being wiped out for
years, according to Dr. Pry, a former staff member of the congressional Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic
Pulse Attack.

Yet neither Republicans nor Democrats have been willing to spend that small sum, says Pry, who is president EMPACT America, which is meeting in
Niagara Falls, N.Y. this week to spotlight the scandal.

A single nuclear bomb exploded over the Midwest would generate an electromagnetic pulse that would destroy the chips that are at the heart of
every electronic device. While military and intelligence networks may be shielded against EMP, most of the rest of the country’s technological
infrastructure is not.
An EMP attack would wipe out personal computers and the internet. Cars would not start, gasoline pumps would not work, and airplanes could not take
off.
Heat and air conditioning would shut down, supermarkets would have to close, telephones would go dead, water would go out, and radio and television
sets would not turn on.
Banks and ATMs would shut down, credit cards would become useless, and emergency services and hospital operating rooms would close.
In the ensuing chaos, most Americans would die from starvation.

The 2008 report of the congressional commission found that the country is shockingly unprepared for an EMP attack. Terrorists or countries like
Iran or North Korea could launch an EMP attack and “possibly end us as a civilization, and take us out as an actor on the world stage,” Pry
says.

At the least, Pry says, 100 to 200 large transformers used in electrical transmission should be protected against EMP attack

We forget how dependent we are on Computers and Data in this Information Age, and how none of our systems are prepared to handle Data Loss from an
EMP, either intentional, unintentional, or through an Act of God (like Sunspot Activity). Backing up to CD or DVD doesn't help as those are still
Magnetic-Optical Systems as well.

It really wouldn't take much to cripple our nation.

The D.o.D. conducted a military exercise over a decade ago where they took 6 hackers off the street and gave them $2400 to buy off-the-shelf consumer
equipment and put them in remote places around the world with a week in which to wreck as much havoc as they could on a parallel computer network that
simulated the D.o.D. system, as well as the American Infrastructure. Those 6 hackers, in this simulation, were able to cripple the entire United
States, from Emergency Services, Power, to the Military itself...and they didn't even rely on using an EMP!

As we are entirely dependent upon "what the computer tells us", we are vulnerable in many ways to attack that would be far more devastating than any
Dirty-Nuke or repeat of 9/11 style attacks.

And what they say about our Power Infrastructure is entirely true. We have swapped out the Mechanical Switches with Computerized ones decades ago, to
ensure better monitoring, prevent Blackouts and Rolling Brown-Outs, and to better automatically re-route Power in the event of downed Power-lines. If
those Computerized Switches were damaged in an EMP, Americans would be without Power for potentially weeks while they were replaced. Forget about the
average American who wouldn't know what to do without heat, lighting, television, hair-dryers, and computers...but think about how much of the rest
of our Infrastructure is dependent upon computers that need Electricity!

Worse yet, think about how much of our Infrastructure is dependent upon bits of data that are stored on Servers, that if lost, would cause our Market
to Crash far worse than any Financial Scandal or Goldman Sachs orchestrated Crash.

Unfortunately, most of our Congress are still living in the Stone Age and have no idea how our Infrastructure works, let alone how, what and why we
should protect it. All they see is a price-tag of $200 - 400 million and wonder if their constituents would allow them to justify such an expense in
an already Deficit Spending Budget.

I heard on patriot radio just a couple days ago that the major threat is the sun. The solor cycle is going to peak in 2012/2013 and cause
magnetic/lightning storms that will have the same effect as a EMP.

I will try to find some info on it unless someone here has info on that subject allready.

Do you have a link to the article or could tell me where to find it? Regarding the DoD recruiting off the street hackers etc.... I'd like to read
that. Thanks in advance

The name of the Operation was Eligible Receiver 97. The exercise was held June 9-13, 1997. The Hacker Red Team (opposing force) was arranged and
monitored by the N.S.A. They successfully gained root access to over 36 government networks and infiltrated and took control of U.S. Pacific Command
computer systems as well as power grids and 911 systems in nine major U.S. Cities.

Most of the details of Eligible Receiver 97 remain classified, especially considering that in early 1998 this was duplicated by hackers during
Solar Sunrise, which was a seemingly concerted attack on the DoD coming from Germany, Israel, Iraq, United Arab Emirates (UAE), France, and
Taiwan to disrupt Military intervention into Iraq that turned out to be nothing more than the shenanigans of two teenage hackers from California.

Yes, I agree. I am in the hospitality / retail business and have seen a steady migration to on-line, electronic transactions, especially during the
past 10 years. Just about ALL of our business, from daily sales transactions, purchasing, bill payment, financial management and reporting is done via
computer with a majority of it performed "on-line".

We have invested in the best routers, switches, firewall technology, multiple servers, etc to protect us from hackers and sabotage. But an EMP device
or extreme solar activity? No, there is not much we can do to protect against that. As we increase our use of wireless devices we become even more
vulnerable.

There are still those who think we connect directly to satellites with our dish antennas and cell phones. No - we connect to the closest hill-top
antenna system, which in turn are communicating with other hilltop systems which eventually connect to an actual earth based satellite communication
center. When those centers fail, all electronic communications will cease. Our entire society and economy is dependent on communications. The more
technologically advanced we become, the more vulnerable we are.

I belong to sustainable living / survival groups. From what I have seen, even among those who are aware of the perilous times we are in, my feeling
is that we cannot survive a complete shutdown of the communication / transportation system. We have forgotten how to live in harmony with the earth.
Only in the most remote areas where people are already living in semi-primitive conditions, will there be survivors.

Not to mention the riots and plundering that would take place, if one or two cities are taken out, the rest of the country could still function.With
one high detonated nuke a whole country could alter into a state of anarchy, picture that with all the armed citizens...
Tinfoil might come handy and a very good tip is to put "sensitive" [personal] electronics into an unplugged old microwave [chop the plug off] and
close it !
The other day i walked through a parking lot under a supermarket near my house, i thought it was the most perfect place to hide in case of a nuclear
blast [probably not on my town but near ] about 4 feet deep with cement it could also be a good hiding place for your car, before [and after] that i
can always loot the market for groceries

Keep in mind that the real risk from EMP requires a high altitude nuclear detonation of a device in the 10+kt range minimum. And by high altitude I
mean really high. No terrorists with a smuggled Russian or home built nuke are going to pull this off. Unless they can get their hands on a
ballistic missile as well. The only practical scenario would be for a technologically developed country (Russia or China) to do this. And it would
require an outrageous set of circumstances for them to risk the nuclear crapstorm that would come their way if they did. And they know that.

To truly 'wipe out the US infrastructure' would require launches of nuclear devices to very high altitudes. Unless the devices was very large and
very high it would require multiples. These launches would be detected almost immediately and the offending countries would be attacked instantly and
with overwhelming force. That is our current standing nuclear doctrine. It is published for all nations to see.

Nuclear detonations at lower altitudes would still have an EMP effect but it would be localized requiring numerous detonations to take out the entire
US. To EMP the entire country with one detonation would require that detonation to be done at an altitude of roughly 300 miles. You could do it with
two at 100 miles altitude and maybe three at 30miles altitude. But getting the devices up that high isn't something easily done.

Originally posted by jtma508
Keep in mind that the real risk from EMP requires a high altitude nuclear detonation of a device in the 10+kt range minimum. And by high altitude I
mean really high. No terrorists with a smuggled Russian or home built nuke are going to pull this off. Unless they can get their hands on a
ballistic missile as well. The only practical scenario would be for a technologically developed country (Russia or China) to do this. And it would
require an outrageous set of circumstances for them to risk the nuclear crapstorm that would come their way if they did. And they know that.

To truly 'wipe out the US infrastructure' would require launches of nuclear devices to very high altitudes. Unless the devices was very large and
very high it would require multiples. These launches would be detected almost immediately and the offending countries would be attacked instantly and
with overwhelming force. That is our current standing nuclear doctrine. It is published for all nations to see.

Nuclear detonations at lower altitudes would still have an EMP effect but it would be localized requiring numerous detonations to take out the entire
US. To EMP the entire country with one detonation would require that detonation to be done at an altitude of roughly 300 miles. You could do it with
two at 100 miles altitude and maybe three at 30miles altitude. But getting the devices up that high isn't something easily done.

Just for the sake of argument....

The scientific principles behind generating a high-altitude EMP are relatively simple. If a nuclear weapon is detonated between 25 miles and 300
miles above the earth's surface, the radiation from the explosion interacts with air molecules to produce high-energy electrons that speed across the
earth's magnetic field as an instantaneous, invisible electromagnetic pulse.5

The balloon is usually filled with hydrogen due to lower cost, though helium can be used as a substitute. The ascent rate can be controlled by the
amount of gas with which the balloon is filled. Weather balloons may reach altitudes of 40 km (25 miles) or more, limited by diminishing pressures
causing the balloon to expand to such a degree (typically by a 100:1 factor) that it disintegrates. In this instance the instrument package is usually
lost. Above that altitude sounding rockets are used.

The only problem with this technique is that these weapons are exceedingly heavy. A minimum size for an EMP high altitude burst would be 10+kt. If
the perpetrators were able to get their hands on a military weapon (highly sophisticated engineering) the package would weight 500+ lbs. If it was a
home-brew it could easily weight twice that at a minimum.

Weather balloons simply don't have the lift capacity to get something that heavy, that high. You might be able to build one to lift a load that
large but I don't believe it would be able to get to altitude. Balloon design gets to be self-limiting relative to load capacity, size and altitude.
That is, the larger the load you want to lift, the larger the balloon must be which requires more material for the balloon etc.

Originally posted by metamagic
There have been many "voices in the wilderness" pointing this out for 20 years. This topic has been debated in the book "Infowar"

Yep, old news. I've been reading about this for 15 years. Making everything information-wise (books etc) is a grave mistake. Anything could happen in
the future and would lose all records and written history if we are not careful. Too much reliance on everything digital these days.

The EMP would still fry circuit boards and relays, and all "solid-state" electronics. So, even with power, hospital systems would not function,
hand held devices would not work, electric stoves and ovens and refrigerators would not function. Cars wouldn't start.

Anything that has a power supply during the EMP will be internally fried! I suppose if we protected the grid, and we have advance notice to the
population to unplug everything they own and remove all the batteries, then maybe we would stand a chance.

Still, that wouldn't work at at hospital, because you can't just unplug life-sustaining equipment for an extended time over a "threat" of an
EMP!

Nope, they haven't spent the money, because it wouldn't help, and our technology will be our downfall eventually!

What a coincidence! With all this nuclear threads I was just thinking about the Dark Angel EMP storyline. Guess what? It happened in 2009.

We are entering a period of special vulnerability to EMP in the coming years, with the fictional June 1, 2009 Dark Angel EMP attack marking a
point in time that is close to the beginning of a period of years when the U.S. is most likely to be the victim of a pulse attack. (Among Dark Angel
fans, June 1, 2009 has long been called the Day of the Pulse.) Most people who have some knowledge in this subject, and who have given some serious
thought to the problem, consider the probability of an EMP attack on the United States during the next ten years at somewhere between 20 and 70
percent.

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